Melbourne snowboarder Joh Shaw has made a strong start to the pre-Olympic season, finishing in fourth place in an indoor parallel slalom event in Landgraaf, The Netherlands.

After qualifying in sixth place on the SnowWorld course, Shaw defeated Italian Corinna Boccacini in the opening round of the head-to-head finals, then ousted former World Cup champion Carmen Ranigler in the quarter-finals.

The 27-year-old Olympic Winter Institute rider came up against reigning World Cup champion Amelie Kober in the semi-final, going down to the German, then also lost the small final to Austrian veteran Claudia Riegler.

Kober went on to win the event from Austrian Doris Guenther and Riegler.

Shaw had finished in fifth place in the same event last season, before going on to end the year ranked tenth in the world.

“Yesterday was a huge day,” Shaw said.

“I won my first round (of the finals) comfortably and was then in the top eight.”

“I was pushed a little more in the next round but also won that, which put me into the top four.”

“Unfortunately the next round I lost by just 0.3 of a second, so then I was in the fight for third place.”

“On my first run (of the semi-final) I was behind by 0.3 and I knew I could make it up in the next run. Half way down the course it was neck and neck. I gave it a big push on one turn to try and overtake but pushed too much and fell.”
 
“I’m disappointed about the fall but still very happy to finish in fourth place in the first World Cup of the season.”